Dragons: Riders of Berk – “In Dragons We Trust” Recap

While performing trust exercises with their dragons, Snotlout and Hookfang crash into Mildew’s house. He, being the local curmudgeon who yells at dragons to get off of his lawn, is none too pleased about it. After complaining to Stoick, Stoick informs his son that he needs to keep more of an eye on his dragons because anything they do is his responsibility. Later that night, all of the boots in the village are taken by what appears to be a dragon, and after a brief search, they find the boots next to one of the dragons. After an even briefer uproar, the vikings get their boots back and Mildew remarks that the dragons might do something worse next time. Taking his words to heart, Hiccup and his friends form D.U.M.B. – the Dragon United Monitoring Brigade – to keep an eye on the dragons in order to prove Mildew wrong. Despite their efforts, the great hall gets clawed up during the night, with Hookfang being blamed because Snotlout had lost him for a few hours during the night. The next day, Hiccup realizes that Hookfang couldn’t have damaged the great hall because Monstrous Nightmare’s always burn fire when they are angry and there were no burn marks in the great hall. His point is rendered moot, however, when the town’s armory burns down and Toothless is blamed, as Toothless was attempting to investigate something and was framed for the crime. Stoick finally relents to Mildew’s point and orders the dragons to be sent to the island where they had battled the large dragon in the movie. Hiccup and his friends at the dragon training academy reluctantly do what they’re told, with only Hiccup vowing not to give up and to investigate what really happened. The next day, Hiccup goes to repair Mildew’s roof which was damaged earlier, and uses the opportunity to sneak into his home. There, he finds the evidence he needs to prove his guilt, but upon hearing the door unlock he is forced to withdraw empty handed. He then watches, incapable of doing anything, as Mildew takes the evidence and throws it over the cliff and into the ocean.

This episode was a chore to get through. That’s something that I didn’t expect to say about this show, but we’ve been through this whole dog-and-pony show before. Mildew hates the dragons. Mildew blames things on the dragons. Stoick gets upset and threatens to get rid of the dragons. Blah. Blah. Blah. It was obvious to anyone that Mildew was framing the dragons, but in an effort to give the series a bit more drama, the dragons have to leave for the umpteenth time only to be accepted back for the umpteenth time in the next episode. I would say that makes this episode pointless, but fortunately, next week introduces the villain of the show. Mark Hamill voices Alvin the Treacherous, and this show needs Mark Hamill to bring his “A” game because I’m afraid that this show is never going to recover unless it gets its act together. The dragons need to be accepted into Berk, period. No more drama about their inclusion. It’s getting old and I may very will skip the next episode that has a plot about them not being trusted. Beyond that, I have nothing else to say about this episode. Stuff happened. There wasn’t much humor. The drama was mostly rendered moot. The next episode needs to be good and the rest of the season better be about other things.